144 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMP^RICA. 



Common farm lands dO' not pay well. Invest in 

 limestone, manure, phosphorus, alfalfa seed, make 

 over that $75 land into $250 land and farming win 

 pay you. 



Visiting a Stone Quarry. — ^A visit to a limestone 

 quarry is an interesting thing. These thoughts 

 came one day to the writer as he strolled with a 

 company of Ohio State University agricultural stu- 

 dents beside the quarries at Columbus, Ohio. A 

 great mass of limestone rock rises to within a few 

 feet of the surface of the soil. Here the Scioto 

 river, cutting its way through, has eroded a chan- 

 nel, exposing cliflfs of limestone; here have come 

 quarrymen seeking to mine the rock for building, 

 for road ballast and for grinding to put upon the 

 soil. 



Upon this scene burst a class of students, eager 

 and curious to note everything, like happy children 

 out of school, climbing over the heaps of debris, 

 shouting merry jests and making exclamations of 

 surprise as they note the many curious revelations. 



Here, by the railroad embankment, newly made, 

 spring up blue grass and white clovers, their roots 

 in the crumbling limestone of the ballast, eloquently 

 telling how waste soils may be restored and covered 

 over with vegetation where lime is. To our left a 

 tangled jungle of old dry weed stalks standing upon 

 heaps of limestone debris, and as we plunge within 

 this jungle we find the weeds are mostly sweet 

 clover, growing huge and lusty, laden last summer 

 with flower and yet bearing seeds. Think of the 



